EDMONTON - You’d think a restaurant called Massimo’s Cucina Italiana (Italian kitchen) would be going for a comfy, welcome-to-my-home kind of feel.

But when someone eats at my home, I generally offer them a drink. And I refrain from turning the chairs over onto the table while they’re eating their dessert.

Yet neither of these rules of etiquette was in play the night we visited Massimo’s, the new, sit-down offering from the family behind the Italian Centre, the venerable grocery store and deli that has been a favourite among Edmontonians for more than 50 years.

The restaurant, located in the same strip mall off 51st Avenue as the Italian Centre’s south-side shop, succeeds in being both stylish and comfortable, right down to its exposed brick and barnboard-covered walls, cool, industrial light fixtures of bare bulbs covered in small metal cages and simple tables draped in white cloths.

The kitchen, too, is impressive-looking — open, sleek and modern, headed by chef Giuseppe Mazzocchi, who recently arrived from Tuscany.

Unfortunately, the obvious effort put into the decor and menu is at odds with the front-of-house service, perhaps because the restaurant has only been open since December.

Our server was pleasant enough in seating us, but after that, we were pretty much left to ourselves. No one offered us wine, or even water for that matter, nor did they come by to explain the menu or offer specials. Our server simply appeared and asked us if we were ready to order our food.

We did end up ordering wine, from a list that was succinct and reasonable, much like the food menu, which included four or five each of appetizers, pastas, mains and pizza.

To get a fair sampling, our table of four ordered several appetizers, a couple of pastas, a main dish and a pizza.

The Bella Napoli pizza was our favourite — a thin-crusted offering of good mozzarella and the barest swipe of tomato sauce, punched up with just the right amount of salty, flavourful anchovies and capers ($13). The other pizzas were equally simple and appealing — no pineapple, stacks of meat or layers of complicated toppings on these pies.

The veal scaloppini funghi ($23) was also very good — tender scallops of veal in creamy mushroom sauce with a side of crisp, bright vegetables and some overly whipped and underly seasoned mashed potatoes.

Among the appetizers we ordered, the polpettine ($11), or small meatballs of veal and pork, were a popular choice — moist and flavourful enough that we wanted more than the five little balls that came nestled in a bowl of marinara sauce. The calamari ($11) was tender and lightly breaded, served a wedge of lemon and aioli for dipping.

Our pasta dishes — gnocchi with prawns ($16) and linguine pescatore ($20) — were both disappointing. Again, servings were on the small side, which was fine, but so were the promised prawns, which was less fine. In both dishes, they were the shrimpiest of shrimps, the kind more often found glommed together with mayonnaise in a shrimp salad sandwich. When asked about the discrepancy, our server said, “Maybe they’re baby prawns? I don’t eat fish.” No kidding.

For dessert, we tried the homemade tiramisu ($7), a generous, attractive serving of the traditional dessert, a little cakier and less creamy than some I’ve had, but good nonetheless.

The panna cotta ($7), an Italian custard, was perfectly light and wobbly as it should be, though the chocolate syrup surrounding it tasted too much like syrup and not enough like chocolate. It’s also available with berries instead.

Both desserts were marred by the insistence of staff on preparing the restaurant for close (at 9:30, on a Thursday night) by turning all the chairs over onto the tables surrounding us, despite the fact that we still had dessert on our forks and wine in our glasses.

We’ll hope the lapses in service were caused mostly by an unfortunate combination of early days and staff inexperience, and give Massimo’s credit — and another chance at some future date — for creating an attractive, comfortable room with a simple, casual menu to match.

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